Women
and Politics
In Afghanistan, women
have been effectively excluded from politics and most
other spheres of public life in the past. The number of
female politicians or politically active women is very
low. However, with the new constitution passed and the
elections forthcoming in September, there are great chances
for Afghan women to participate in politics. The constitution
guarantees a 25% quota for women in parliament. This historical
opportunity should not be missed.
In order to prevent women in parliament
from becoming mere window dressing, they have to be empowered
to become active participants in the political process.
Capacity building is needed, as very few women have experience
in political work, and there is an immense lack of skills
and knowledge about political and institutional processes.
The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung is currently
building up a network of politically active women. They
are frequently invited for workshops on political issues
such as election campaign strategies, leadership skills,
women’s rights, political party work, etc. Apart
from capacity building, the aim is to bring women together
to exchange ideas and work out a common strategy on strengthening
women in the political process. This is crucial, because
the degree of networking among political women in Afghanistan
is particularly low.
In this field, the FES Afghanistan profits
from the cooperation with other FES-offices in South Asia.
FES India conducted a study on the experiences of first-time
elected women on local governement level in three Indian
states, followed by target programmes. These experiences
will be made exchange programme Very few women in Afghanistan
are aware of their political rights and opportunities
for participation.
Therefore, the raising of political awareness
among women is another focus of the FES-work. In April
2004, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung organized a conference
on “women and politics” in cooperation with
the US-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) and three
Afghan NGOs. The conference was attended by the German
member of parliament Angelika Graf. Similar conferences
are planned in the provinces.
On 8th May 2004, the Young Leaders’
Forum of the FES organized a campaign on women’s
day in Kabul, distributing information material about
the international relevance of the day in town.
Furthermore, a civic education programme
is in planning that is aimed at educating women about
the forthcoming elections.
